MWK: The Gift that Keeps on Giving
by Raven Lee
Summary: Sequal to A Very Special Gift. Kevin's sick and Remy only just now finds out about it. Can he save the boy in time?


March 12, 1998  
Revised Sept 2002

Marpiya Wakankdi na Kimimi  
The Gift That Keeps On Giving 

Note: ::giggles:: its funny how many people remember me when I posted "A Very Special Gift"! Hey, My last name just changed, I'm still the same person ^_~ For anyone who didn't realize that Raven Lee and Raven Adams of MWK fame is one and the same person, ya'll can go see my newest stories at my web site. http://www.dreamwater.net/ravenlee/index.html . On this revision, I just fixed a few little things nothing as big as "A Very Special Gift", just a few continuity mistakes. I didn't really think I *could* fix it without giving it a complete re-write and we all know how I am with those ::sighs:: BTW, yes, I know this is silly. For Beast to have come up with something *that* fast…::rolls eyes:: You have to remember I was fifteen when I wrote this. Sixteen when I got it typed out. I've grown up since then, but I'm *not* changing this story G. S'cute. And I still can't write Beast to save my life so I left everything he said alone, including the Morts syndrome stuff…even thought I'm sitting here giggleing over it G (BTW, I write these notes as I read this)

Kevin, Doc J, and April belong to be. Everything else belong to Marvel

* * *

The Gift That Keeps On Giving  
Raven Lee  
  


Every time he took in a breath, his chest sounded like a baby's rattle. Breathing seemed to get harder and harder with every passing minute, but he held on. He endured the pain, because it's who he was, a survivor.

His parents had abandoned him, it seemed like years ago now, just after they had found out he wasn't going to get any better from the disease he was born with. His world had ended that day. He hated everything. There was no God, for how could God have given him to parents like these? And there was no hope. Hope was a fading light even before his parents had left him on the doorstep to the Home for Sick and Abused Children. It had gone out completely that day.

But God had shown himself, and Hope had decided to shine its light on him one day three months ago, before the sickness had clamed him fully. It had been Christmas and his gift had been to meet the X-Men. His idols.

The visits from each of them, mostly from Remy and Rogue, had been the only constant thing in his life in those past three months. The only thing he really looked forward to. After his visit with the X-Men on that Christmas Day, he remembered how to smile, how to play, how to believe in things, and most importantly, how to live again.

He loved Remy and Rogue. They were family without really being linked to him, and he knew they loved him in return. That was why he had begged Ms. Jackson not to tell any of them that he was sick. He only wanted their love, not their pity. He didn't want them to know he was dying.

It was such a big thing for a ten-year-old to grasp. Death. Death of a hamster, a kitten, a goldfish, it was to be expected. But to realize you yourself were dieing...

Most adults wouldn't have been able to handle it as well as Kevin did. But he'd known all his life, though when he still lived in his parents home, it had never really been *his* home, it had only been a little thing in the back of his mind. Such a small thing for the smaller than normal boy to grasp. Now, however…His eleventh birthday was only a week away. A week was forever for a dieing child and he didn't think he would be seeing it.

"Kevin?" Someone knocked on the door lightly then walked into the room. Kevin turned his head to see who it was, but his eyesight was so blurred that the two figures seemed to run into each other like some sort of blob monster. But he knew who it was. Ms. Jackson and Dr. Judd. "Kevin?" Doc J asked again.

Kevin smiled weekly and said a soft "Hiya," as he felt Doc J put a hand on his forehead.

"How ya feelin' today, buddy?" Doctor Marcus Judd asked his young patent, knowing he wouldn't get the truth.

"H-hay man, I feel like I could go {cough} play on the monkey bars. Heh." He reached his hand up slowly and tried to push Doc J's hand away. He was so pathetically weak that he couldn't even slightly budge the doctor's hand.

There was a sob.

Marcus turned to look at the woman beside him. April Jackson, the Home's den mother, was fighting to keep her tears in check, but she was losing the battle. She had never lost a child to an illness before. Marcus knew how she felt and wanted to comfort her, but decided to leave that to her husband when he got back from his trip. He had always had a secret love for this woman, she was, after all, the main reason he had taken the job of the Home's doctor. But right now, he wished he had never met April Jackson and, therefore, never had to deal with the pain he was feeling for the dying ten-year-old.

He opened his black bag and pulled out needles and pills. They wouldn't save Kevin's life, nothing could, but they would make the pain go away for a few hours. "Kev? I'm going to give you a shot okay? It'll let you sleep for a few hours. Now, you might feel a little prick in your arm, but that's just me, okay?"

"Wait," he said hoarsely, holding his hand up to stop him. His hand only lifted slightly off the bed before dropping again. "Ms. Jackson?" April leaned over the bed and Kevin whispered something to her. She nodded and placed a soft kiss on his forehead. Kevin hugged his old worn teddy, Gambit, who he had named long before meeting its namesake, to his chest, "Go for it, Doc."

Marcus slid the nettle in Kevin's forearm and injected the medication into his blood. In a matter of seconds, he was asleep, his chest rattling noisily with every breath.

* * *

The day was beautiful. Not a cloud in the sky, and only a light breeze in the otherwise hot day. The weather was good and it planed on staying that way, thanks to Ororo Munroe.

Laughter and the smell of a grilled hamburgers flowed over the grounds of the Xavier estate as the two groups of students known as the X-Men and Generation-X had a picnic behind the mansion.

-SWOOP- and the crack of wood as a bat contacted to a baseball filled the air. "An' de Cajun, get a home run!" Gambit shouted throwing down his bat. He ran the diamond slapping hands with his teammates as Banshee swore at his bad luck as a pitcher. Soon as Gambit's feet hit the home plate his arm reached out and grabbed Rogue's waist as he led her in a victory dance. Their laughter filled the air and the other X-Men came to congratulate Gambit on wining the game for them.

"Good job, Gumbo!" Jubilee yelled.

"Jubes!" Paige said coming up to her. "He's on the other team!"

"And your point is...?"

"Hey everyone, the burgers are done. Come and get them while they're hot!" Jean had to jump out of the way as the throng of hungry teenagers came running at her. She just barely managed to keep from being trampled by them and Scott had to grab her before she fell into the grill, but she was laughing.

Inside the mansion the phone began to ring. Rogue flew inside to get it. She came back out a few moments later, the cordless in her hand. "Remy, sugah, it's fo' yah. It's April."

"T'anks, cherie," he grinned taking the phone from her. She smiled back at him, then kissed two of her gloved fingers and touched them lightly on his lips. He winked at her and put the phone to his ear. "Allo?" he asked taking a bite of his hamburger. A second later, he choked on it.

* * *

"Why you n't tell me?!?!" Gambit yelled at the top of his lungs as he rushed into Kevin's room. "He sick an' you n't tell me!" He had run from the picnic without telling the others where he was going and got on his bike. Five minutes later, here he was running into the room to see the little boy who had changed his life. Because of the boy, he had told the X-Men his past with Sinister, and they had forgiven him. All except for Angel at first. But after thinking it over for a while, he too had forgiven him. It was also because of this boy, he was sure, that Rogue had said "yes" when he'd purposed to her last week. They were going to be married April 6, and then they were-

But if Kevin was hurt-

"He asked that I not. Please, Remy, there are other children here, you're scarring them." April raced to try and keep up with his longer strides, but it was difficult. She tried using her mutant ability to calm him down. It wasn't working.

"Non!" He yelled pushing her up against the wall. "Don' try dat wit' me! You should 'ave told me!"

"What's going on here?" Marcus turned from Kevin's bed and looked in surprise as a man in nothing but shorts pined April to the wall. April burst into a new batch of tears, and slid down the wall. She hit the floor and covered her face with her hands.

Gambit turned to the doctor. "What wrong wit' Kevin?" he asked going to the boy's bed.

Marcus put his hand up on Remy's chest trying to stop him. "I don't know who you are, but I'm the boy's physician, and you're not welcome here. Get out now!"

Remy turned his gaze at the doctor who was surprised by his red on black eyes. Marcus's hand dropped and Gambit moved to sit on the bed beside Kevin. He moved his hand over the boy, to his forehead, and brushed a strand of sweat soaked hair from his face. "Li'le boy, you should 'ave told me," he whispered softly, a tear blurring his vision. He sat there for a few minutes, listening to the noise coming from his small chest. The boy had never looked truly healthy, he was so small…but Gambit didn't know he was-

"What wrong wit' him?" He asked the doctor again.

Marcus was on the floor, his arms around April, trying to quiet her sobs. "Mrots Syndrome." He said, softly. "It's incurable. There's nothing I can do."

Remy felt the tears fall down his cheeks. "O-ow long?"

The doctor shrugged. "Weeks? Days? Hours? We didn't think he'd live as long as he has. It's a very rare disease. We didn't- Hey now! What do you think you're doing?!?!"

As the doctor was taking, Gambit was taking the wires and plugs out of Kevin, and, making sure had had the bear too, he picked up his frail form. "I takin' de boy wit' me."

"The fuck you are! Put him back down! He's in no condition to-" He jumped to his feet and stood between the door and Gambit.

"Calm down, Marcus. He's not going to hurt him." April said, using her mutant ability, calming herself down as well. "I should have thought about it before."

"Should 'ave." Gambit mumbled, and walked past the calm doctor who was looking around drunkenly. April followed him.

"No, LeBeau. You're not taking him on your bike, we'll take my van. Marcus, be a dear and watch the kids for me."

"…a dear..."

* * *

"'Ow bad is it, Henry?" Remy asked as the blue furred Henry "Beast" McCoy studied Kevin's vital signs on the Shi'ar medical equipment. When he had come to the mansion with Kevin in his arms, and Rogue had seen him, she had promptly burst into tears, thinking the boy was dead. It took both Jean and April to pull her away so that Remy could bring the boy to the lab. He knew he should be out there with his future wife, but he just couldn't bring himself to leave to boy's side.

Hank grabbed his lab coat and glasses, putting both on and typed a few buttons. A load thumping sound filled the room. It sounded hollow and the thumps were far apart. Was that a good thing? Hank typed in a few more buttons and the sound of Kevin's lungs joined his heartbeat.

"'Ow bad is it?" Gambit asked again.

Hank looked at him over his glasses, and instead of saying something that Gambit wouldn't understand, he just shook his head. "Mrots Syndrome is incurable by the means of earth technology, but perhaps with the Shi'ar...? I do not know, my friend. This virus is almost as puzzling as the Legacy Virus. Almost, but not quite..."

"You t'ink you got somet'ing, mon ami?"

"I'm not sure. Mrots Syndrome operatives by eating the DNA of the host. Perhaps if I reconstruct parts of the deteriorated DNA with an antibody it just might kill the affecting cells. But, then again... it could kill him." He sighed irritated and wiped his glasses on his lab coat in a nervous habit he had developed.

Gambit looked down at the boy. "Is dere 'nother way?"

Beast shook his head. "Not that I know of. Had I had more time perhaps..."

Remy picked Kevin's teddy off the floor where it had dropped. It had stitches of every color running though it where April had tried to fix it when it ripped, one of the eyes was missing, the stitching that was the nose had long since unraveled and it only had half of its left ear. Kevin had named it after him and he felt the way it looked right now.

Putting the bear in the crook Kevin's arm, he kissed the boy's head. He figured he had about as much control over the boy's welfare as April did, and said, "Do it, mon ami. It might be de last chance we get."

* * *

Remy sat in the first row with Rogue beside him. She was sniffling, trying not to cry. The other X-Men and all the children from the Home were sitting behind them. Out the corner of his eye he could see April Jackson sitting further away from them on the other side of the room. The room will filled with flowers, why there were so many, Gambit would never know, but they added color to the otherwise dreary room.

A man in black flowing robes came out a door and walked up the steps to the podium. He looked down at his papers, picked them up, and taped them, before putting them down again. He looked up at the people gathered together, all waiting for him to speak, and cleared his throat. Before he could say anything though, April Jackson stood.

"Sir, may I say something?" She asked, her voice quiet.

"Certainly, Ms. Jackson. We all value whatever you have to say."

April walked up to the front of the room and looked into the box where Kevin was. He was dressed in a blue pinstripe suit and a little tie. She almost started to cry thinking of another time that he could have been wearing that suit, but she stopped the tears. She turned and looked, half at the others in the room, and half at the man at the podium. "I wanted to say, that I know for a fact that before Kevin had met Charles Xavier, Remy LeBeau, and the others, that he didn't have much to want to live for. He was dying in spirit as well as in body. And I do believe that if he hadn't of met these people he would have died a lot sooner. These people where his hope. His love. And most importantly, they were his family. That's... that's all I wanted to say."

She turned and walked back to her seat.

"Thank you for that, Ms. Jackson. I know how uncomfortable this can be for most of you, so I'll be brief." The man at the podium cleared his throat again, and looked down at his papers. "Kevin Matthew Anderson, born March 12, 1987, I do hereby declare on this day, March 12, 1998, that you go to the custody of Remy and Rogue LeBeau. Congratulations, son, you've just been adopted."

Rogue screeched in happiness and flew over to collect her new son from the witness stand, hugging him tightly to her; Remy was beside her in a flash. A cheer went up in the court room, and as the judge congratulated them all again, all three of the happy new family were crying.

TEFN 


End file.
